Hi Everyone I'm Russell my wife is Beth. I'm 39 she's 36, both of us have been career driven practically our whole life. After years of climbing the preverbal corporate ladder it took the passing of my mom after a 3 year battle with brain cancer to make us realize life is too short. In September 2013 we decided to take a huge step and downsize our lives. We are building a small one bedroom house on land next door to my father, the goal is to build this debt free. Once completed we have decided that I will leave a career that has taken me nearly 21 years to achieve. The end goal is to hike a trail we have intentionally avoided every weekend and every vacation with the intention to thru hike it and see it all for the first time. We have done numerous hikes in the past couple of years, and were avid hikers until a back injury sidelined Beth. Several years passed and work got more intense so hiking wasn’t something we were afforded time to do. In a moment of desperation we opted to leave the house and head into western North Carolina for a short day hike, within a few 100 yards we both had that warm joyous feeling and knew this is what we were meant to do. As mom’s illness progressed we spent more time with her as we knew her days were numbered. After her passing we made the commitment to make the dream of the AT a reality. So far we are off to an amazing start our friends have pitched in and helped us build from the ground up and in 3 and a half months we can see the completion of what we call Operation Dream Maker in the very near future. Initially we thought 2015 would be our year to thru hike the AT, while we are still hopeful we may not finish and recover financially in time for this to happen. Regardless the dream is alive and nothing is going to damper it. We look forward to learning from all the wonderful people here on the forum.
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